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Jammu & Kashmir’s highest run-getter this season Shubham Khajuria, who played crucial role in his team reaching the Ranji Trophy knockouts, hailed coaches Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Joshi, Irfan Pathan and Ajay Sharma for shaping his career as J&K opener.
Khajuria, 29, who scored 679 runs this season, now has 4,111 runs under his belt from 73 first-class games.
Khajuria, was just 15 when he made Ranji debut against Maharashtra in 2011. “Bishan Singh Bedi sir (deceased) was the J&K coach then and he worked a lot on my game and gave me the confidence to play at the first-class level,” Khajuria told mid-day.com.
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When J&K outclassed Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in 2014-15, former India left arm-spinner Sunil Joshi was their coach. “Sunil Joshi sir changed my batting style. At that time I was hitting sixes against spinners quite well. But I was not able to leave medium pacers balls bowled on the fourth and fifth stump. But after practising for one and half-months he made that area very strong. He also strengthened my defence against spinners as I was just hitting big shots. That season I scored 400-plus runs in the first four games before I dislocated my shoulder in the fifth match. I then had to undergo surgery,” Khajuria recalled.
When former India all-rounders Irfan (in 2019-20) and Ajay (current coach) joined the J&K team, they brought major changes in his mindset.
“I think the turning point of my career came when Irfan bhai became J&K coach. In those two years he changed my mindset. I was taking too much pressure because we were not winning matches. He explained to me how I can help the team win games because I have that ability. His guidance helped me score runs in white-ball cricket too.
“This season, Ajay sir brought about a major change in my batting. He pushed me to score big hundreds. Till last season I had six centuries in one-day [List A] and seven hundreds in first-class cricket, but all these centuries were not big knocks. But this season, I scored 255 [v Maharashtra], 159 [v Chhattisgarh] in a one-dayer and 85 not out [v Uttar Pradesh] in T20 cricket. All these scores were J&K’s highest individual performances,” remarked Khajuria, who smashed a match-winning 94 against Baroda recently.
Pundits considered J&K unlucky not to qualify for the Ranji knockout rounds after losing to Kerala.
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